New Wilson Combat .308 Cal Rifles

Wilson Combat has entered the big bore EBR market with its new line of .308 caliber AR-pattern rifles. They feature Wilson Combat’s trademarked “BILLet-AR” receiver construction, and come in both 16″ and 20″ lengths. From the somewhat lengthy press release:

After rigorous testing and evaluation Wilson Combat is pleased to announce the availability of our new large format BILLet-AR rifles in .308 Winchester caliber. The .308 caliber rifle is an ideal choice for the hunter or long range shooter looking for an AR-style rifle with impressive down range ballistics.These all-new rifles utilize our in-house BILLet-AR receiver technology to build the next generation of lightweight but accurate and reliable semi-automatic rifles suitable for a variety of tactical and outdoor roles. This rifle is further enhanced with our renowned custom features like precision machined Match Grade barrels, T.R.I.M hand guard rail and crisp Tactical Trigger Units.

These .308 rifles raise the bar for .308 AR accuracy and reliability.

SPECIFICATIONS

BILLet-AR 7075 T-6 Aluminum Flat-Top Upper & Lower Receiver

Lo-Profile Gas System

Accu-Tac Flash Hider

T.R.I.M. Rail

Bravo Company Pistol Grip

Wilson/Rogers Super-Stoc®

TTU (Tactical Trigger Unit) Single Stage, 4#

Premium Bolt and Bolt Carrier NP3 Plated

Mil-Spec Hard Anodize Finish on Upper / Lower Receivers

Armor-Tuff® Finish

The rigid but lightweight BILLet-AR receiver allows us to build the lightest .308 frame AR on the market with the 7.7 pound Tactical Lightweight Model that has a lightweight 14.7″ barrel and pinned muzzle device as standard.Medium, Recon profile 16″, 18″ or 20″ fluted or standard barrel models are also available for shooters seeking maximum precision and all around long range performance in a slightly heavier but portable package.

Our receivers have been designed to accept commonly available metal or polymer “SR-25” pattern magazines. Numerous finish options, muzzle device, various rail lengths and other custom features are also available.

These rifles have the Wilson Combat performance you can trust along with our best-in-industry 100% Customer Satisfaction pledge.

A Word From Bill…
“The goal of the Wilson Combat team was to design and build a premium quality lightweight .308 platform carbine that is accurate and reliable with minimum weight and bulk, I think we have successfully achieved our goal.Personally I have never been a fan of the .308 platform AR due to weight and a lot of square edges on the ones I’ve handled, I believe the Wilson Combat design team has resolved these issues and produced an extremely user friendly carbine.

Even though AR carbines in 5.56, 6.8 SPC and .458 SOCOM do most of what I need in a ranch rifle, the added range with knock down power of the .308 will certainly come in handy from time to time.”

Unlike the AR-15, which has maintained standards of inter-compatibility since the late 1950s, the AR-10 represents a dizzying amount of variety and proprietary standards Since the early 2000s, the .308 caliber AR market has positively exploded, with new variations, patterns, and standards being introduced with almost every release. The Wilson Combat rifles come with Lancer magazines, and so presumably are compatible with SR-25 magazines, however the extent to which their rifles are compatible with any other AR-10 standard is unclear.

Nathaniel is a history enthusiast and firearms hobbyist whose primary interest lies in military small arms technological developments beginning with the smokeless powder era. In addition to contributing to The Firearm Blog, he runs 196,800 Revolutions Per Minute, a blog devoted to modern small arms design and theory. He can be reached via email at nathaniel.f@staff.thefirearmblog.com.

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Nicks87

Good looking rifle. I love seeing companies finally address the weight issue with 308 ARs. Only downside is the price, I’m sure we will end up paying the bill wilson premium. $3000+ would be my guess.

Rob

True. It’s like buying a Mercedes, is it worth it? I don’t know. A Ford can probably get you where you are going just as well, and for a lot less.

Nicks87

My dpms recon gen 2 is getting me there just fine and I had money left over for some nice glass to go on top of it. I still like the wilson but won’t be buying one of course.

Rob

After reading the comment in the final paragraph about the lack of a standard for the AR-10, I realized that this situation is actually quite similar to the what occurred in the early 20th Century with the then-standard military-style rifle: the bolt action repeater. Many, many companies brought out rifles similar to the Mauser pattern, and while functionality was nearly the same, parts were not interchangeable.

Pedro

I’ll keep the SCAR-H

darthcoder

Can we at least standardize on a magazine? and maybe triggers/bolt assemblies? I’m far less concerned about barrel + upper compatibility, but I’m pretty much stuck with converted M14 mags or Armalite for replacement magazines.

This is completely different from the old DPMS pattern. The old DPMS 308 pattern was round at the back, not angled. This is like a mix between the AR-10 back and the old DPMS 308 magazine well area. I like the new compact DPMS 308 and I agree, it would be a good standard because everything rear of the bolt is regular AR stuff.

360_AD

Is it just me or does it look like they’ve inserted the magazines backwards?